Idemori-myojin

On the way to Yakeyama, there is a small open space on the right, where a flight of stone steps leads to a stone figure called Idemori-myojin. He sits in a dark,
damp roofed shrine and stares at the small stream which runs beside him.

The story about Idemori-myojin dates back to 260 years ago in the Edo era.

The people in this area had had little rain and had suffered a shortage of water for a long time. Shinzaemon Kumazaki, the shoya (the village headman) of
Kamiyamada-mura, racked his brain to find ways to alleviate the drought. One day he hit upon a good idea. "Let's cut out a channel to draw water to our village," he proposed to the
villagers. Together they worked day and night. The construction was almost finished in a month and a half, earlier than expected.

This is called Shita-ide channel. However this channel was not large enough to supply all the villagers with water, so they set about building another channel,
Uwa-ide, above Shita-ide. This time the work was harder and they enshrined a god there called Idemori-myojin to

watch over the work in progress.

As they worked at a snail's pace, it took nearly 27 years to complete the construction. They thanked the God for having helped them accomplish the work without any
big accidents. After achieving their goal the villagers erected a stone figure beside Idemori-myojin in praise of Shinzaemon's great contribution.